Team NOVA

Ray Rassi 50
Computer Technician

Summer 2006 Profile

Like many people, Ray found turning 50 depressing. He didn't want to stay in a rut, feeling like "life was over." Ray has never been "the physical type," and until his brother challenged him to run a 10K race in Puerto Rico in the winter of 2005-2006, Ray had never participated in sports at all. The Puerto Rico run energized him and helped him to see a way out of his mid-life funk. By taking on the NOVA challenge, he wants to prove that there is life past 50.

Ray's Race Results & Update

Official Time/Pace
4hrs. 29min./10:16 minutes per mile

Are you still running, four months later?
I am running sporadically. I'm finding it hard to stay motivated to run without the group experience. I am hoping to join the Tufts [President's Marathon Challenge] team this year and run the Boston Marathon again next year. I am also considering running a marathon in Havana, Cuba this November.

What else has stayed with you?
The knowledge that if you set your mind to do something seemingly impossible, and you work at it diligently, you can accomplish it! There are many times that I am faced with tasks that would have felt incredibly difficult prior to running the marathon. Nowadays the number of things I find difficult or impossible are greatly reduced.

What it all meant
It gave me an opportunity to take on something I had seen for so many years as a spectator and turn myself into one of the runners. I am proud of myself for being able to accomplish it. There is a sense of pride that you wear forever when you can say, "I ran the Boston Marathon." Despite turning 50 recently and feeling somewhat depressed about it, I was able to turn that around and be in the best shape physically and mentally ever!

Athletics were never a big thing for me. I was about as much of a couch potato as the average Joe out there. This marathon quest enabled me to prove that anyone, even me, could snap out of the rut of our daily existence and get into shape and do something that even kids 30 years younger tell you they cannot do! Nothing is impossible.

As we watch the seconds tick off on the great clock of our lifetimes, we can choose either to accept the deterioration that comes from neglect, or take control of our health and lives.